Champions League fairytale team Bodø/Glimt close to return as 7 playoffs decide full 36-team lineup

GENEVA (AP) — The Champions League's Cinderella club Bodø/Glimt is one game away from returning to the 36-team main draw being made Thursday alongside the wealthy giants of European soccer like title holder Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

With the final seven Champions League entries to be decided in playoffs this week, the Norwegian fishing town team holds a 3-1 lead hosting Dutch debutant NEC Nijmegen at its Arctic Circle home on Tuesday.

Norway could have two teams advance as domestic champion Viking hosts Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday with the teams tied at 2-2. The Croatian champion wasted an early two-goal lead in the first leg last Tuesday.

The Champions League draw ceremony starts at 6 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) Thursday in Monaco, when the local team will be preparing to kick off about 10 minutes’ drive away in the Conference League playoffs.

Monaco defending a 3-2 first-leg lead over Gornik Zabrze is among 36 playoff second legs this week in the second-tier Europa League and third-tier Conference League to finalize lineups for those draws being made Friday.

After winning games against Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan in last season’s Champions League, Bodø/Glimt started this time in qualifying needing to advance through two rounds in August.

Glimt has scored three goals in each of its three games so far, first eliminating Union Saint-Gilloise 6-5 on aggregate score. Almost its entire squad was retained with just one big-money exit, selling Denmark forward Kasper Høgh to Celtic for a reported 11 million pounds ($15 million).

Høgh and Celtic also are in action Tuesday, taking a 3-0 first-leg lead to Austria against LASK.

Israel’s champion Hapoel Beer-Sheva has a 2-1 lead going to Azerbaijan to face Sabah, a club which was created just nine years ago.

Lyon, now owned by U.S. investor Michele Kang, hosts Fenerbahce on Wednesday tied at 1-1.

Pot 1: Paris Saint-Germain (France), Bayern Munich (Germany), Real Madrid (Spain), Liverpool (England), Inter Milan (Italy), Manchester City (England), Arsenal (England), Barcelona (Spain), Atletico Madrid (Spain).

Pot 2: Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Roma (Italy), Sporting Lisbon (Portugal), Aston Villa (England), Porto (Portugal), Manchester United (England), Club Brugge (Belgium), Real Betis (Spain), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands).

Pot 3: Feyenoord (Netherlands), Lille (France), Napoli (Italy), Leipzig (Germany), Villarreal (Spain), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), Galatasaray (Turkey) — possibly Slavia Prague (Czech Republic).

Pot 4: Stuttgart (Germany), Como (Italy), Lens (France). Seven playoff winners are yet to be decided.

The draw sees UEFA's software program allocate eight opponents to each team, with two coming from each seeding pot.

The first round of games is played over three evenings from Sept. 8-10 — the only games before the new and expanded four-game international break for national teams that starts Sept. 24.

The Champions League resumes Oct. 13 with the second round. The sixth round is played Dec. 8-9 before a break until January. The eighth and final round with all 36 teams playing simultaneously is Jan. 27.

The Europa League has a stronger look than last season with AC Milan, Juventus and Bayer Leverkusen waiting in the draw Friday for the eight-round league phase.

So too are a curious group from England — Conference League title holder Crystal Palace, European debutant Bournemouth and Sunderland, which last played in a UEFA competition 53 years ago.

The prize for lifting the trophy next May in Frankfurt, Germany, is a ticket to the Champions League.

Second legs in the qualifying playoffs are on Thursday with some played during the Champions League draw.

Those games include Mo Salah’s Trabzonspor trailing 1-0 before going to Hungary to face Ferencvaros, plus former European Cup winners Benfica and Red Star Belgrade.

It has been a tough season for some of the feelgood story domestic title holders who were already eliminated in Champions League qualifying rounds.

Swiss champion Thun — edged out of Champions League qualifying by Dinamo Zagreb — lost 7-0 at Lech Poznan in the first leg of its Europa League playoff. Sweden’s Mjällby goes to Salzburg on Thursday after a 1-0 loss at home.

All losers in Europa League playoffs get places in the Conference League main phase played over just six rounds until December.

The Conference League also has teams that identify as Champions League regulars: Ajax, Atalanta, Monaco.

Freiburg drops down a level after being the Europa League beaten finalist in May while Brighton aims to make it three straight English winners after Chelsea and its main rival Palace.

No one gets a free pass into the six-round league stage and all must navigate the playoffs round this week.

Atalanta, the 2024 Europa League winner, looks most at risk after a 0-0 draw in the first leg at home to Hapoel Tel-Aviv. The return is in neutral Hungary.

Andorra shapes to have a first-ever team in a main phase, with Inter Escaldes hosting Drita of Kosovo tied at 2-2. Larne of Northern Ireland takes a 2-0 lead into its home leg against Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Trabzonspor's Mohamed Salah in action during the Turkish Super Lig soccer match between Kasimpasa and Trabzonspor in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, Aug.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Celtic's Camilo Duran celebrates after scoring their side's second goal during the Champions League play-off first leg match between Celtic and LASK in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP)

FILE - PSG's head coach Luis Enrique celebrates after the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. AP Photo/Armin Durgut, File)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia on Monday intensified ground and aerial firefighting operations as huge blazes in central and western parts of the country scorched thousands of hectares of forests and peatland, created a choking haze that blanketed cities and crossed borders.

Indonesian authorities have been battling fires driven by an intensifying El Nino pattern and a prolonged dry season, generating dense smoke that crossed into Malaysia and Brunei, according to Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, or BNPB.

The BNPB said Monday that fires remain active in several regions, while large-scale suppression efforts continue in fire-prone provinces including West, Central and South Kalimantan on Borneo island and in Riau, South Sumatra and Jambi on Sumatra island. The fires are part of a broader surge in wildfire activity across Indonesia this year.

After visiting areas devastated by forest and peatland fires in Central Kalimantan on Saturday, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto flew to fire-affected Riau province on Sumatra island, where more than 11,500 hectares (28,400 acres) have burned, to encourage authorities to get the haze cloud under control.

Prabowo vowed the government would continue supporting firefighting operations, including through the deployment of additional water-bombing helicopters and oxygen supplies for firefighters. He urged authorities to “thoroughly document and report the work being carried out by firefighting teams” directly to him.

The Transportation Ministry said it has authorized the use of 35 foreign-registered aircraft to support wildfire response operations, including water-bombing missions and aerial patrols. The ministry said the aircraft can be rapidly redeployed to disaster-hit areas as conditions change, while complying with Indonesian aviation safety regulations.

The Environment Ministry satellite data on Monday showed South Sumatra recorded the highest number of hot spots nationwide with 1,429, followed by West Kalimantan with 1,226 and Central Kalimantan with 811. East Kalimantan logged 576 hot spots, ahead of Riau with 503, while West Papua and Jambi recorded 468 and 458 hot spots, respectively.

Forestry Ministry data indicated that nearly 94,000 hectares (232,000 acres) burned in July alone.

Drought, strong winds and dry vegetation have complicated efforts to contain the fires, BNPB said in a statement on Monday. Some hot spots remained inaccessible to more than 10,700 ground firefighters who were deployed as of Sunday, prompting local officials to request additional water-bombing support and firefighting vehicles.

Cloud-seeding resumed over Kalimantan on Monday, with 30 helicopters for water-bombing and aerial patrol missions, and another 22 helicopters covering Sumatra.

Fires are a regular problem during dry season in Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands, and often strain relations with neighbors. Plantation owners and traditional farmers often start fires to clear land for farming. It triggers hazardous haze that reduces visibility, disrupts land and air transportation and threatens public health, sometimes affecting neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, Malaysia has suffered severe smoke from the fires, with its eastern state of Sarawak among the hardest hit, prompting the closure of nearly 600 schools and affecting about 200,000 students, the Sarawak government said.

Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

A man is silhouetted against the haze from wildfires that blankets Musi River in Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Fajri)

People walk along the Ampera Bridge as haze from wildfires blankets the city of Palembang, in South Sumatra, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Fajri)